1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to frieze vents for buildings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has long been the practice that in order to seal the space between the roofing material and outside walls of a building, bounded on the end by rafters, a so-called frieze board would be constructed by carefully measuring the spaces between the rafters, cutting notches in a long board to fit around the rafters and nailing the boards in place. Vent holes are sometimes provided, which holes may be covered with screen wire. This method of construction and installation of a frieze board has been an arduous and time consuming task.
Various devices have been used in the prior art to avoid the use of the above described method of construction and installation. Typical examples in the prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 1,651,071, issued Nov. 29, 1927 to J. C. Scheppers; U.S. Pat. No. 2,969,726, issued Jan. 31, 1961 to T. J. Bottom; U.S. Pat. No. 3,125,942, issued Mar. 24, 1964 to L. L. Smith; U.S. Pat. No. 3,256,654, issued June 21, 1966 to E. D. Pinckney, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 2,991,709, issued July 11, 1961 to D. D. Haddix; U.S. Pat. No. 3,051,071, issued Aug. 28, 1962 to R. L. Leigh; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,649, issued Dec. 11, 1973 to W. A. Luckey.
The Smith, Pinckney, Haddix and Leigh devices all disclose ventilator modules used in installations wherein the vents are parallel with the ground. Additionally, they do not disclose devices for convenient fittings about rafters.
The Scheppers and Bottom devices disclose the expedient of ventilators installed between adjacent rafters and outside walls in a full or partially vertical position but fail to disclose means for enclosing the space under the rafters securely nor do they disclose a method of solidly locking the screening material with the rafter connectors in a convenient slide and snap connection manner after the rafter connectors have been installed.
The Luckey device discloses the expedient of a prefabricated apparatus for occupying the space between the roofing material and the outer walls of a building bounded by two adjacent rafters but does not use a vent system terminating evenly with the building wall nor a rafter connector equipped to enclose a rafter and engage adjacent vents on either side of the rafter. The unit is also expensive to construct.
The problems of having a prefabricated, easily installed structure capable of compensating for variable distance rafter spacings and warpage is solved by the rafter vent of this invention. The vent can be prefabricated because it is adjustable to variations in the normal size of the space between the rafters and the warpage of the rafters, as well as providing a rafter connection unit for two adjacent vent screens.